Medical Trials of Cannabis to Start in Britain!LONDON (1998),The British Government is officially to sanction a series of trials, involving more than 1000 patients, on the therapeutic uses of Cannabis. The Medical Research Council and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will set out the guidelines for the trials on 11January at a closed scientific meeting to be attended by Department of Health officials. The Medicines Control Agency, the Government's licensing authority for prescription and over-the-counter drugs, has agreed to advise the scientists on the regulatory aspects of the proposed trials. The Prince of Wales last week appeared to lend his support to the campaign to legalise cannabis for therapeutic uses when he asked a multiple sclerosis sufferer if she had ever tried the drug for pain relief. The patient was later quoted as saying: ``He asked me if I had tried taking cannabis, saying he understood that, under strict medical supervision, it was one of the best things for it.'' But Mr Peter Cardy, the chief executive of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, said that he was inclined to think it was for a doctor - rather than Prince Charles - to make recommendations about trying cannabis. The drug trials will mark the first time that the Government and its agencies have given official sanction to investigating the therapeutic value of cannabis and its derivatives, cannabinoids. The move follows a report from a House of Lords scientific committee that said doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis for multiple sclerosis sufferers and other patients who find it helps to relieve pain. Each of the initial three trials will cost about 500,000, (A$1,372,750) with funding from the Medical Research Council if it gives final approval. The first trial will be for spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. One group of about 100 patients will be given the ordinary treatment for controlling muscle spasms. A second, similar-sized group will receive tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a cannabis derivative known to have an anti-sickness effect, as well as producing euphoria. A third group will be given standardised cannabis plant material to see if THC is the most important compound or if there are other elements of the drug that help patients. The following two trials will be into the treatment of chronic pain for dying cancer patients or those with phantom limb problems, and for acute pain following operations. Professor Tony Moffatt, scientific adviser to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, said that the trials were ``all about getting cannabis into patients who need it''. He added: ``Despite all the huffing and puffing over whether it should be legalised, nobody has done anything about it. There is no good scientific evidence that these materials are effective at all.'' The tests are expected to start in the middle of the year and to run for 18 months. TELEGRAPH
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